List of sculptures of Ludwig van Beethoven

The German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) is among the most admired composers in the history of Western music, and has been the subject of many private and public sculptures, including busts, reliefs, statues and others. The first, a bust by Franz Klein, was commissioned by Johann Andreas Streicher and created in 1812, while the composer was still alive. After Beethoven's death in 1827, his hometown, Bonn, immediately began planning a monument for the following year, though a cholera outbreak delayed this. A design competition was eventually held, in which a submission by Ernst Julius Hähnel beat ones from Friedrich von Amerling, Gustav Blaeser and Friedrich Drake. In 1845, Hähnel's monument was erected, due to finances given by Robert Schumann, Charles Hallé, George Thomas Smart and especially Franz Liszt. While the monument's height and simplicity were criticized, the reliefs surrounding the base were met with public approval. The statue's representation of a figure standing on a decorated base with its legs slightly apart was popular at the time, and later inspired Theodore Baur's statue of in the Library of Congress.

The Beethoven monuments that followed Hähnel's, while retaining a high pedestal, began to portray the composer in a less simplistic and increasingly heroic light. The most significant representative of this, and the most famous Beethoven monument from the second half of the 19th century, was Kaspar von Zumbusch's 1880 monument in , Vienna. The city had intended to erect a monument for Beethoven since his death, but serious action to do so began only in the 1870s, when a competition for a design was held and Zumbusch's winning design was created with financial support from Liszt and Brahms.

In the early 20th century, the glorified portrayals of Beethoven reached their peak, with god-like representations such as Max Klinger's monument (1902), unveiled at the Vienna Secession (now in the Museum der bildenden Künste), and Fidus's unexecuted design for a 'Beethoven temple' (1903). The 20th century also saw a brief return to the simplistic style of the 19th century, such as Robert Weigl's statue at the in Vienna (1910) and statue in Karlsbad (1929). Also at this time, Antoine Bourdelle and Naoum Aronson, both students of Auguste Rodin, began creating busts of the composer; Bourdelle was especially prolific. As the century progressed, ideas on depicting Beethoven became largely ununified, and were often especially allegorical, such as Theodor von Gosen's monument in Alameda Central, Mexico City (1921). In 1926, Berlin hosted a monument competition in preparation for the composer's 100th anniversary the following year; the entire competition was controversial and was eventually canceled due to criticism from the press and the committee's inability to form a consensus. There had been submissions from famous sculptors including Ernst Barlach, Peter Breuer and Georg Kolbe, although Breuer and Kolbe eventually had their designs constructed in 1938 and 1948 respectively. After World War II, experimentation in portraying Beethoven increased even further, exemplified by three-dimensional reproduction (1986) of Joseph Karl Stieler's painted portrait and Markus Lüpertz's controversial abstract portrayal (2014).

There is a large collection of busts in the Beethoven House, a museum and cultural institution based in Bonn that studies Beethoven's life and legacy, including ones by an unknown artist based on a sculpture by Josef Danhauser (); Fernando Cian (first quarter of the 20th century); Pierre Félix Masseau (1902); Aronson (1905); a mask supposedly by (1920–1927); Eduard Merz (1945/46); (1981); and Cantemir Riscutia (1998).

Sculptures

+Sculptures of Ludwig van Beethoven Image Type Location Date Sculptor Bust Kunsthistorisches MuseumVienna, Austria 1812 Bust La ScalaMilan, Italy First half of the 19th century Statue Bonn, Germany 12 August 1845 Relief LiceuBarcelona, Spain March 1847 Relief Conservatoire de Musique de GenèveGeneva, Switzerland 1856–58 Bust Beethovengang, HeiligenstadtVienna, Austria 15/23 June 1863 Bust WalhallaDonaustauf, Germany 1866 after Anton Dietrich Bust Royal Philharmonic SocietyLondon, United Kingdom 1871 Relief Frieze of ParnassusAlbert MemorialLondon, United Kingdom 1872 Statue Royal Museum of Fine ArtsAntwerp, Belgium 1874 Other sculpture Galleria d'Arte ModernaMilan, Italy 1874 Other sculpture Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e ContemporaneaTurin, Italy 1874 Bust Grand Théâtre de GenèveGeneva, Switzerland 1879 Statue Vienna, Austria 1 May 1880 Relief Alte OperFrankfurt, Germany 1880 Unknown Bust Central ParkNew York, New York, US 22 July 1884 Bust Tower Grove ParkSt. Louis, Missouri, US 1884 Bust ConcertgebouwAmsterdam, Netherlands 1888 Bust Beethoven HouseBonn, Germany Unknown(based on a sculpture by Josef Danhauser) Bust Library of CongressWashington, D.C., US 1892 Bust Prospect ParkNew York, New York, US 20 October 1894 Statue Naples, Italy 1895 Statue Library of CongressWashington, D.C., US Bust ?Last seen in Lincoln ParkChicago, Illinois, US 1897 Relief HelenentalBaden bei Wien, Austria 1899 Statue New England Conservatory of MusicBoston, Massachusetts, US 1900 Bust Garden of the Beethoven HouseBonn, Germany First quarter of the 20th century Bust Garden of the Beethoven HouseBonn, Germany 1902 Statue Museum der bildenden KünsteLeipzig, Germany 1902 Relief (architectural) Eisenach, Germany 1902 Unknown Other sculpture Museum of Fine ArtsBoston, Massachusetts, US After 1902 Other sculpture TiergartenBerlin, Germany 1904 and Wolfgang Siemering Bust Garden of the Beethoven HouseBonn, Germany 1905 Other sculpture Museum der bildenden KünsteLeipzig, Germany 1907 Statue Aston Webb Building, University of BirminghamBirmingham, United Kingdom 1907 Bust GarnethillGlasgow, Scotland 1909 James Alexander Ewing Statue Döbling, Vienna, Austria 1910 Bust Golden Gate ParkSan Francisco, California, US 6 August 1915 Bust Parque de la IndependenciaRosario, Argentina 1917 Mask Garden of the Beethoven HouseBonn, Germany 1920–1927 Statue Alameda CentralMexico City, Mexico 1921 Relief Ungargasse 5Vienna, Austria 7 May 1924 Relief Malá StranaPrague, Czech Republic March 1927 Bust Baden bei Wien, Austria 10 May 1927 Bust Martonvásár, Hungary 1927 Statue Nuremberg, Germany 1927 Statue Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic 29 September 1929 Statue Budapest, Hungary 1932 Statue Pershing SquareLos Angeles, California, US 14 October 1932 Unknown Relief Rostock, Germany 1934 Bonn, Germany 1938 Other sculpture Buenos Aires, Argentina 15 November 1944 Bust Garden of the Beethoven HouseBonn, Germany 1945/46 Statue(s) Frankfurt, Germany 1948 Bust Redoute, Bad GodesbergBonn, Germany 1955 Other sculpture Doblhoff ParkBaden bei Wien, Austria 1969 Bust Graz OperaGraz, Austria 1969 Relief Hegyvidék (District XII)Budapest, Hungary 1970 Other sculpture Hlohovec, Slovakia Unknown Statue Jan Kochanowski ParkBydgoszcz, Poland 1970s Statue SiolimGoa, India 1 May 1976 Bust Parque de BerlínMadrid, Spain 1981 Unknown Bust Garden of the Beethoven HouseBonn, Germany 1981 Other sculpture BeethovenhalleBonn, Germany 1986 after Joseph Karl Stieler Statue Naruto, Tokushima, Japan 1997 Bust Garden of the Beethoven HouseBonn, Germany 1998 Statue Jesús de Monasterio ParkSantander, Spain 1999 Bust Jintai Art MuseumBeijing, China 2004 Bust Bad GodesbergBonn, Germany before 2008 Other sculpture Bonn, Germany 30 March 2014 Statue(s) Martonvásár, Hungary 31 December 2014

Bourdelle's sculptures The French sculptor Antoine Bourdelle (1861–1929) greatly admired Beethoven, of whom he created at least 45 sculptures from 1893 to the end of his life. +Sculptures by Antoine Bourdelle Image Type Location Date Bust(a study) Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenWashington, D.C., US 1889 Bust Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland, Ohio, US 1891 Bust Musée IngresMontauban, France 1891 Mask List Visual Arts CenterCambridge, Massachusetts, US 1901 Bust Musée IngresMontauban, France 1901–1902 Bust BeethovenhalleBonn, Germany 1902 Bust Beethoven HouseBonn, Germany 1902 Bust Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary ArtStrasbourg, France 1903 Bust Musée d'OrsayParis, France 1903 Statue Musée BourdelleParis, France 1904–1908 Bust Metropolitan Museum of ArtNew York, New York, US Bust Montevideo, Uruguay 25 December 1927 Other sculpture Musée IngresMontauban, France 1927–1928 Statue Princeton University Art MuseumPrinceton, New Jersey, US 1929 Bust Jardin du LuxembourgParis, France 1978 Bust Ohara Museum of ArtKurashiki, Japan Undated

Unexecuted sculptures +Unexecuted sculptures Sketch Date Sculptor 1840s 1903 Fidus 1926

List of sculptures of Ludwig van Beethoven

Bron en licentie